Memoir '44 - Victory through overwhelming fire-power!

At last - a US (i.e. me) lead victory in France 1944! The mission, Operation Luttich, was to stop a midnight attack by German assault troops on a strategic hill (Hill 314) over looking large areas of the French countryside; the Americans won - just! With a 6 medal win requirement and the US facing 18 German tanks, including 2 SS Panzer platoons and 1 SS infantry platoon, Roshni (German again) looked like she would flatten the (mostly) infantry based US opponents in a few dice rolls! But how the fortunes of fate turn! In fact, a lot of it had to do with concentration and game length, which leads me to a slight criticism of the game - well, criticism is a bit too harsh, just may be words of advice for any potential M'44 gamers reading this; but more on that later; on with the game!

Here is the opening position with US armour to the bottom left and a small amount of infantry on the Hill preparing to face the German march - no, onslaught - top right. The US artillery in this scenario played a vital role. 

Part way through the game; a huge thrust by SS tanks push the US battalion off the Hill.The US tanks were too far away to help or protect them. Artillery fire was diverted away to take out German troops rushing forward in the Centre sector. Things were not going well (again) for the US.The Germans had kept the other side of the river tied down, a central push was coming in hard and they were coming in thick and fast on the right over the Hill! 

Here, in this overhead recon photo from US bombers, we see German tanks in the centre and right sector pushing right through. The tanks to the right eventually pushed on to XXXXX taking the German victory medal there. The US tanks were tied down with holding the bridge so stopping any German pushes there and stopping the tanks in the centre. Artillery did its bit, although one unit was lost to ranged German tank fire. The swing came with plucky infantry anti tank fire coming from the central bocage took out a lot of central sector German tanks and concentrated artillery fire caused a route.

In the end it was a very lucky US win (one medal won via a precise allied airstrike over the bridge). German forces held the Hill and XXX and several other key areas. Although the US won on a technicality, the eventual winner would be determined with whom ever re-enforced first!

Half term but no gaming!

The kids are away for half term and so far it's been a game free week and bank holiday! :( May be some late night games of ticket to ride. We've been looking at some new games; the German game of the year is about to be announced, perhaps that may be a good indicator of what to get next. I've had a self imposed ban from Battlequest Games simply because I'd just keep buying and buying and buying! My birthday is coming up soon this month and I'm hoping to get some gift vouchers which Andy has started selling recently to get some great new games!

We're pilgrims in an unholy land next year!

A great quote snatch from my friend - both of us are going to Essen next year! We've decided 2011 is the best time since we need to book a hotel early and save up etc. Can't wait! A while off but at least plans are under way!

My first boardgamegeek geeklist!

I decided to put together a geeklist on boardgamegeek based around my experience of being the only guy in a family of five gamers of various ages. I listed our most popular games and what we thought of them and received some good feedback so far; including an 8g tip from a game designer to buy a microbadge!

See the list at :http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/54948/games-for-when-dad-is-the-only-guy-in-a-family-of

Citadels and more Citadels...and goodbye to some games

Today was another Citadels day - with the heating system on the fritz, it was a case of dragging the table in front of the coal fire and sitting down to a couple of healthy rounds of this classic game. It has now become so popular, it is outdoing Zooleretto as our favourite game! First it was a standard round then we introduced about 10 of the * expansion Location cards - these provided a new healthy mix to the available locations and more excitement to the game. We planned a game of Eketorp but we ran out of time.

Also we've decided to sell three games, Mystery of the Abbey (played once), Bonanza (never played) and The Queen's Necklace (played a few times) - hopefully to plough the proceeds into a new game or two.

Games we've got, games we've played and not played (aka Games! Games! Games!)

We have a lot of games. According to my account on Boardgamegeek, I have 77. That's a lot of games for a 3 bedroom house with 5 people in it (2 adults and 3 kids in case you're thinking we're a refugee household or something). But there has been more than that over the years and mostly they are unplayed with. Why? I buy games because they interest me and also because some are collectable. But that is a complete oxymoron in that games are supposed to be played with and not honoured like some sort of Samurai uniform in the corner.

I have a large amount of Games Workshop games that use figures, but they suffer from "Too much time ious" - they have no time period as to how long they will last and that makes us as players not want to play them. Plus also I have to paint the figures - GW games just look wrong with unpainted figures and it makes it worse when you look at the professionally painted ones in the manuals etc. Most GW games also have a fatal flaw that is exploited to the extreme to generate money - the rules state you have to have a minimum of X number of figures and vehicles etc to qualify to play - and to me that is wrong; that turns a game from being fun to a money generator.

Anyhow - away from modern Games Workshop (I touch on older GW games which are a gold mine of fun) and back to the silly notion of not playing games.

I recently sold my entire Advanced Squad Leader set (apart from the three starter kits) because I knew I'd never understand the 2kg rule book, let alone have fun with it. It was too much of a paper driven simulator. So I sold it on ebay. I knew some of the items were rare and out of print; I didn't expect £1057 as a return for my investment.

I ploughed some of this money back into games - specifically Memoir '44. Lucky for battlequestgames, their shop opened just as this money fell into my hands and I spent it in there lol. Memoir 44 is an amazing wargame boardgame that produces much more fun and playability than ASL ever did for me.

It is hard to describe the joy buying and owning a new game brings - perhaps it is equatable to those whole like new luxury cars or handbags and shoes - taking off the wrapping film and seeing the components; especially the bigger games, and more especially the Euro types I have got to know recently because of their extremely high quality components; cards, counters etc. As you can tell I cannot wait to buy another one!

Anyhow, this set me thinking about the games I do have (Around 77+) and how many I have actually played.

Well that's have a look at board game geek at the unplayed games:
3rd Fleet
5th Fleet
7th Fleet
Aquaetto
Blackbeard
Bohnanza
Carcassonne: The Princess and the Dragon
Crescendo of Doom
GI: Anvil of Victory
Gunslinger
Imperium Romanum II
Last Night on Earth
Mancala
Nuclear War
Pirates of the Spanish Main
Star Wars: Assault on Hoth
Tank Commander
Uno Superman
Vinci (not played my own copy)
Warhammer Quest
Zombies!!!

21 games - not good. I will have to have a look at these to see if a) we should get a game in b) they are unplayable by the family and consider removing them from our collection.

Don't play a game for years and suddenly do two at once!

Amazing what a play of a game can do to your opinion of it lol. As today was a rain off for doing anything outdoors, Anita suggested playing a game - Citadels because she likes it so much! Now we were more up on the rules (apart from me finding out that you draw two location cards and only keep one at the start of your turn d'oh), things moved faster and play was more fun this time around.
Last game was a draw between Anita and I - this time Anita slamdunked us again - as it usual when she plays lol.